Mind: On Strategy (Quotes)

"Strategy is a system of expedients. It is more than science, it is the translation of science into practical life, the development of an original leading thought in accordance with the ever-changing circumstances." (Helmuth von Moltke, "On Strategy", 1871) 

"Strategy is concerned with the setting of an aim and the forming of schemes. Tactics are concerned with the execution of the schemes. Strategy is abstract, tactics are concrete. Expressing it in a popular way: Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation." (Dr. Max Euwe, "Strategy & Tactices in chess", 1937)

"A natural companion to the competitive advantage is the synergy component of strategy. This requires that opportunities within the scope possess characteristics which will enhance synergy." (Igor Ansoff, "Corporate Strategy", 1965) 

"The act of making a decision consists of selecting one course of action, or strategy, from among the set of admissible strategies." (Richard A Epstein, "The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic", 1977)

"Risk is a function of how poorly a strategy will perform if the 'wrong' scenario occurs." (Michael Porter, "Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance", 1985)

"It is possible to learn strategic flexibility [...] however, that it is difficult to teach it. It is not a matter of learning a few readily grasped general principles, but of learning a lot of small, 'local' rules, each of which is applicable in a limited area. The point is not to learn how to drive a steamroller with which one can flatten all problems in the same way, but to learn the adroitness of a puppeteer, who at one time holds many strings in his hands and who is able to adapt his movements to the given circumstances in the most sophisticated ways." (Dietrich Dörner, "The Logic of Failure", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (B), 1990)

"Strategy means abstract thinking and planning, as opposed to tactics, which are the individual operations used to implement strategy. Tactics are specific; strategy is general. Tactics tend to be immediate, strategy long-term." (Bruce Pandolfini, "Weapons of Chess: An omnibus of chess strategy", 1989)

"A strategy is a set of hypotheses about cause and effect. The measurement system should make the relationships (hypotheses) among objectives (and measures) in the various perspectives explicit so that they can be managed and validated." (Robert S Kaplan & David P Norton, "The Balanced Scorecard", Harvard Business Review, 1996)

"Strategy in complex systems must resemble strategy in board games. You develop a small and useful tree of options that is continuously revised based on the arrangement of pieces and the actions of your opponent. It is critical to keep the number of options open. It is important to develop a theory of what kinds of options you want to have open." (John H Holland, [presentation] 2000)

"[...] a general-purpose universal optimization strategy is theoretically impossible, and the only way one strategy can outperform another is if it is specialized to the specific problem under consideration." Yu-Chi Ho & David L Pepyne, "Simple explanation of the no-free-lunch theorem and its implications", Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications 115, 2002)

"Strategy is about stretching limited resources to fit ambitious aspirations." (Coimbatore K Prahalad, "Don Soderquist", 2005)

"Strategy-making is an immensely complex process involving the most sophisticated, subtle, and at times subconscious of human cognitive and social processes." (Henry Mintzberg, "Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour Through The Wilds of Strategic Mangement", 2005)

"Strategy is a constant reconciling of possibilities, means and ends." (Bernard Jenkin, 2010)

"A strategy coordinates action to address a specific challenge." (Richard Rumelt, "Good Strategy/Bad Strategy", 2011)

"Any strategy that involves crossing a valley - accepting short-term losses to reach a higher hill in the distance - will soon be brought to a halt by the demands of a system that celebrates short-term gains and tolerates stagnation, but condemns anything else as failure. In short, a world where big stuff can never get done." (Neal Stephenson, "Innovation Starvation," World Policy Journal, 2011)

"First develop a strategy that utilizes everything around you. The best way to prepare for a challenge is to cultivate the ability to call on an infinite variety of responses." (Paulo Coelho, "Aleph", 2011)

"The central issue is never strategy, structure, culture, or systems. The core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people." (John Kotter, "The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations", 2012)

"By and large, strategy comes into play when there is actual or potential conflict, when interests collide and forms of resolution are required." (Lawrence Freedman, "Strategy: A history", 2013)

"It is hard to avoid the conclusion that while strategy is undoubtedly a good thing to have, it is a hard thing to get right. […] So what turns something that is not quite strategy into strategy is a sense of actual or imminent instability, a changing context that induces a sense of conflict. Strategy therefore starts with an existing state of affairs and only gains meaning by an awareness of how, for better or worse, it could be different." (Lawrence Freedman, “Strategy: A history”, 2013)

"A strategy that doesn't take into account resources is doomed to failure." (John C Maxwell, "JumpStart Your Thinking: A 90-Day Improvement Plan", 2015)

"Somebody once told me, 'Manage the top line, and the bottom line will follow.' What's the top line? It's things like, why are we doing this in the first place? What's our strategy? What are customers saying? How responsive are we? Do we have the best products and the best people? Those are the kind of questions you have to focus on." (Steve Jobs, "Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs", 2016)

"A heuristic is a strategy we derive from previous experience with a similar problem." (Darius Foroux, "Think Straight", 2017)

"Strategy is a style of thinking, a conscious and deliberate process, an intensive implementation system, the science of insuring future success." (Pete Johnson)